When I put together a movie/slide presentation of our recent family camping trip, I titled it ‘Shared Calamity – 2009’. That title has a significance that is worth sharing.
Many years ago, Barb and I heard a nationally known speaker/writer on family issues (Gary Smalley) declare (I don’t know if he was serious or not) that the one constant he finds among all happy families is camping. His explanation is that calamity (rain, forgetting the tent poles, losing ones underwear out of the car top carrier into the middle of the interstate, getting stuck in the mud, having a “Little Miss Sunshine van that needs pushing to start) in camping is an inevitability, and when calamity is shared, it is generally bonding. Camping creates experiences of ‘suffering’ which are laughed about years later.
We have had our share of calamity, and we laugh about them. All those in the list above have happened to us. I don’t know where we fall in the scale of family ‘happiness’, but I do know that we all enjoy these times together.
We encourage you to begin your own tradition of calamity!
TulipGirl
Oh, no! Haven't gone camping with my boys.
Matthew
Yeah camping!!P.s. I actually wrote this comment 2 days ago but had it post now to appear as if I just wrote it. Cool eh?Matthew
Randy Greenwald
Yeah… pretty cool. Smoke and mirrors!